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Got an Old Kindle? It Might Not Work Anymore
- micromacrofoot 6mo agoyou can still transfer over usb, which should be the bare minimum for eol hardware support... this isn't as bad as it seems on the surface
- internet2000 6mo ago> If you own one of the affected Kindles, you’ll still be able to access all of the books that are already downloaded to your device. However, you’ll no longer be able to purchase, borrow, or download books to your device from the Kindle Store. > And while you can sideload DRM-free (digital rights management–free) titles to the Kindle via USB [...], it’s not the best option from a security standpoint. What a terrible article.
- overflowy 6mo agoBest thing I ever did with my Kindle was jailbreak it and install KOReader. Crazy that somebody needs to do that in order to truly own their device.
- disillusioned 6mo agoIt seems absurd to me that Amazon is making the product decision to EOL functional hardware that is _actively used to purchase books from them, legally_... all to... what? potentially sell another $100 or so reader? At the expense of... what? Some minimal amount of engineering effort to keep updates flowing for the extremely limited surface area that is the old Kindle OS? Why upset your customers over this when they were otherwise using this device to give you money?
- thisoneisreal 6mo agoBought a Kobo and decided I'm just going to stick to Ebooks.com DRM-free section from now on. Tired of not owning what I buy. I did the same with music, using an Innioasis iPod knockoff + buy MP3s from Amazon Music, cheaper than Spotify and I never have to worry about my music becoming unavailable. I also prefer the experience of single-use devices.
- gdulli 6mo agoYou're an ant to them. All that data they have tells them this action won't hurt them. An incredibly important turning point of this era is that businesses have learned that they no longer need to fear acting hostile to consumers. Consumers don't practice agency.
- aidenn0 6mo agoThere's a lot of moving parts here: 1. Competition is much lower in a lot of places. 2. Customers prioritize convenience and (perceived at least) low-prices over being treated well. Look at airlines: Unless you happen to be traveling between two major airports, there will typically be at most 2 airlines with a reasonable schedule for the two endpoints, and most people will not pay $100 more for being treated like human beings over cattle.
- themafia 6mo ago> Consumers don't practice agency Customers can't practice agency when the markets are mostly monopolized or the products pass through a cartel first. The moment a viable, cheaper and more convenient option appears, your customers will show you exactly how fickle they are.
- beej71 6mo agoI just jailbroke my old Kindle 4 for fun. Found out of it ever connects to WiFi it unjailbrakes itself. :) The email Amazon sent out said that if you factory reset your device after May 20 it becomes inoperable. I wonder if that means bricked, or if it just means you can't access your DRM kindle library.
- Cider9986 6mo agoI think you can disable the Over the Air Updates.
- ndiddy 6mo agoYou will still be able to use it if you factory reset, but you won't be able to register it to an Amazon account or download any of your DRM'd book purchases. The Kindle will still work and you'll still be able to read books you load over USB. The one annoyance is there's a nag pop-up telling you to register your Kindle, but it only shows up in the main menu and not when you're in a book.
- II2II 6mo agoThey said that it affected less than 3% of Kindle e-readers and Kindle Fire tablets. I wonder how that number would change if they only considered Kindle e-readers? I suspect that the disposability of tablets distorts that number significantly.
- Cider9986 6mo agoAs much as I am a fan of annas-archive, Zlibrary Koreader Plugin[1] makes a bargain I can't refuse. [1] https://github.com/ZlibraryKO/zlibrary.koplugin https://github.com/ZlibraryKO/zlibrary.koplugin
- 0x38B 6mo agoI transfer books by running `python -m http.server` on my phone or computer, then opening my Kindle’s browser to my IP and downloading my .mobi book. It doesn’t take long, and I can do it all over Wi-Fi. I can mount it via SSHFS for anything more than copying a single book. I stopped buying anything from Amazon on principal a couple years ago, books included; and anyway, most books I read these days are in the public domain – Project Gutenberg is a treasure trove!
- ekropotin 6mo agoWhy just don’t send books on the email associated with your kindle?
- mayama 6mo agoI sync articles and books to my phone via adb. There is this adbsync python script that syncs files in rsync fashion using adb. Hopefully google won't kill or add barriers to adb like they are doing with installing apks now.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- ChrisArchitect 6mo agoPreviously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47678320 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47678320 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47690049 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47690049 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47747330 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47747330
- LandenLove 6mo agoUnrelated to the article, but the sticky AI prompt at the top of this page is infuriating. I've added the element to my ublock filter.
- shell0x 6mo agoI’m thinking to get a device for reading technical books. Do you think an iPad mini would be the better option? I had a kindle before but it was slow to change pages and I heard even new versions are still not great for PDFs, but would like to get some opinions. I have a friend at Apple so wouldn’t pay the full price for an iPad.
- frio 6mo agoIf you want an e-ink type screen, the Supernotes (or Remarkables, or Viwoods) are all very good at this. Personally I hate trying to read things on iPads.
- elorant 6mo agoI'd go with an iPad instead of the mini just to be on the safe side. I have a 12" tablet and it's night and day compared to my 6" Kindle (2020 model). Kindles suck if you try to read pdfs, they don't scale naturally so you can't see shit. Anything with a screen at 10" or more would work fine for pdfs.
- shell0x 6mo agoi guess that would be an iPaid air as it just got refreshed?
- secabeen 6mo agoProbably just the iPad, unless you are not at all price sensitive. $350 ($299 refurbished) vs $600 is a big uplift; you can almost buy two iPads for the price of an iPad Air. For just PDF viewing, any Apple CPU is performant enough.
- throwaway27448 6mo agoEven 10" feels far too large to casually read in bed with.
- elorant 6mo ago
- crims0n 6mo ago> Earlier this week, Amazon notified its customers via email that, starting May 20, it will end support for Kindle and Kindle Fire devices released in 2012 or earlier. 14 years of support really isn't bad at all.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- heyalexhsu 6mo agoya. compared to an iphone that normally gets 5-7 years.
- nokeya 6mo agoJust use Calibre to transfer books to the reader
- neilv 6mo ago> The company is offering a 20% discount that you can apply toward one of its new Kindle models, Federal is complicated right now, but can state AGs step in, and make Amazon either continue to support the old devices, or provide comparable free replacement devices?
- andyvanosdale 6mo agoCan they, yes. Just about anyone can be used for just about anything. Should they, no. Why should Amazon continuously support, checks notes... 14 year old devices??? Likely the number of customers using a device like that anymore is super small.
- thewhitetulip 6mo agoUnlikely. Kindles are e readers that last a long time. I have a 10yr old paperwhite as good as new!
- snailmailman 6mo agohow well does the battery hold up after that long? Mine is only like 2-3 years old and I charge it so rarely. I can read several entire books on a charge easily. It lasts months. I imagine even if the battery degraded significantly it would be quite usable.
- mnahkies 6mo agoMy paper white is about 7/8 years old, and is still holding up fine though the battery is noticeably degraded - charging it approximately once a week now. I was also having a play with a demo model of the latest one in a store and the page turn speed is much much better, which is tempting me to upgrade though I'd prefer to run the current one into the ground first.
- thewhitetulip 6mo agoI have to charge once a month or once 15 days I didn't keep track tbh. And I read like crazy. I finished 22 books on the kindle this year so far. Its a Lithium battery so unless you let it drain to single digits every time, it'll last a LOONG time
- ashton314 6mo agoI have a Kindle with KOReader on it and it’s awesome. I recently bought a book directly from the author (Isles of the Emberdark, Brandon Sanderson) and the author, being excellent, provided it without DRM so I had no trouble reading it. But for less-excellent authors, where’s a good place besides Amazon to get ebooks?
- freefaler 6mo agoThe high seas (https://open-slum.org/ https://open-slum.org/) ... and as a compensation donate to the author somehow or make a donation to your local library for a clear conscience.
- testing22321 6mo agoI bought a used kindle paper white in 2015 for I think $70. It’s been through 75 countries on 5 continents. I must have read 500 books on it. Plenty of nights at -40C, years at +40C. Battery still lasts 5 books. Never turned on wifi, works great with calibre. Best electronic purchase of my life.
- coro_1 6mo agoThis quote near the end of the article: > “Kindle devices have a relatively small attack surface, and successful exploitation through ebook files is rare, though not impossible,” said Bogdan Botezatu, a senior director of threat research and reporting for cybersecurity software company Bitdefender. Should sell more new Kindles.
- wrxd 6mo agoI saw this coming when they stopped allowing downloads of purchased books. When that happened my Kindle got KOreader and after it broke I replaced it with a Kobo. I’m much happier with my new device
- Markoff 6mo agowhy it wouldnt work? unless there is some hardcoded switch I doubt my offline Kindle where I copy offline books over USB will suddenly stop working, it's more likely work exactly same as it did in the past 10-15 years using it this way
- offbyone42 6mo agoI got extremely lucky. I bought a Kindle recently and decided to get one by BestBuy, just trying my luck to see if they had old stock. The firmware was 5.18.0.2 and I was able to jailbreak it. If anyone is looking for a Kindle, try non-Amazon stores. Might have older stock with older and jailbreak-able firmware.